Mmm. I haven’t played the NYT Connections game for a while, but while other members of the family were at piano class, I thought that I’d give it a go. And it was while I was doing that, that I found this article by Connections editor, Wyna Liu.
This isn’t a new article: it’s a year and a bit old, but it does make interesting reading. Because it does rather make it seem like Wyna came up with this revolutionary idea of how to make the game work:
There would have to be a mix of categories for the game to feel challenging and satisfying. That’s where the puzzle element could come in: Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay — palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words — rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards. I saw three areas of potential difficulty that could be adjusted: the familiarity of the words, the ambiguity of their categorization and the variety of the wordplay.
But if you have ever watched Only Connect, the TV quiz show which began in 2008, then you’ll already have been enjoying “Connections” as “The Wall” for 15 years before NYT and Wyna began their version.
And they “saw” how to make it harder a long time before she did.
If there is a regular criticism of Connections, it’s that many of the answers are rather America-specific: baseball team nicknames or supermarket mascots; stuff that anyone outside the US wouldn’t know. But although it attracts an international audience, it’s an American site, and there’s ample opportunity for you to learn stuff about America from the internet.
Equally though, there was surely plenty of opportunity for Wyna and the NYT to know that “Connections” already existed. And I’m not saying that it was trademarked or anything – as far as I know, there’s no legal axe to grind here – just that pretending that it was a concept that they came up with… well… that’s a bit much.
Still, I do occasionally go and get my Connections fix. And when I need some more, I go to Puzzgrid, which… er… also pre-dated Connections. And why makes no bones about where it got the idea from (and pops a subtle dig at the NYT):
And why not go and enjoy the original on Only Connect, since it has just begun its 20th series?
Other Only Connect posts on 6000 miles…
Other Puzzgrid posts on 6000 miles…
